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Unobtanium
Unobtanium (pronounced un-ub-TAIN-e-um) is a highly valuable mineral found on the moon Pandora. Humans mine unobtanium to save the Earth from its energy crisis; bluntly put, they need it for their survival. Description It is a room-temperature superconductor for energy, which makes it very valuable; it is worth $20 million per kilogram (2.2 lbs) unrefined (worth $40 million per kilogram refined) on Earth. However, it is expensive to mine as the Pandoran atmosphere is toxic to humans, therefore all human personnel are required to wear an exopack, which is very cumbersome. Humans transport unobtanium on trucks called Hell Trucks from the mining sites back to Hell's Gate for refining. Unobtanium proved to be the most baffling of scientific discoveries in the area of superconductors as it had an extremely strong magnetic field, reversing prior knowledge that all superconductors repel magnetic fields. Furthermore, unlike the fragile crystals of human-created superconducting compounds, the substance found on Pandora was a stable quasi-crystal with its atoms arranged in a never-repeating but orderly pattern with fivefold symmetry. This structure was not only structurally rugged but also has microscopic voids in the quasicrystalline structure that contain the magnetic flux lines (see Type II superconductor). Unobtanium has a unique magnetic field and properties of superconductivity, causing it to levitate in magnetic fields under the Meissner Effect. On Pandora, the magnetic effect causes huge outcroppings of unobtanium to rip loose from the surface and float in the magnetic vortices. These huge islands, named Hallelujah Mountains by Earth's explorers, are called Thundering Rocks by the Na'vi, who hold them sacred. The unique magnetic properties of unobtanium are used to contain and direct the energy of the matter-antimatter annihilation which propels ships like ISV Venture Star. Without unobtanium, interstellar commerce on this scale would not be possible. Unobtanium is not only the key to Earth’s energy needs in the 22nd century, but it is the enabler of interstellar travel and the establishment of a truly spacefaring civilization. This makes a feedback loop; the more unobtanium is mined, the more ships can be built and the more mining equipment can be sent to Pandora. Originally, the term "unobtanium" was slang used in the aerospace industry, to describe hard-to-access materials with mythical properties. However, over the years, the name appears to have stuck. AVATAR Scriptment, page 13. Origin Researchers theorize that billions of years ago, when the planets and satellites of the Alpha Centauri System were condensing from the primordial stellar nebula, a Mars-sized stellar body may have crashed into the still molten Pandora. The moon's nickel-iron core was disrupted. The high temperatures and pressures produced far exceeded anything wrought by human technology. These forces interacted with Polyphemus' intense field and created conditions suitable for the production of unobtanium. Background with some unobtanium]] Superconductivity was discovered in 1911 by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, who was studying the resistance of solid mercury at temperatures close to absolute zero. it proved to be useless because of the logistics of cooling large amounts of material down that far. Further efforts proved futile, and frustrated researchers finally termed their goal "unobtainium." (The spelling was later changed to "unobtanium" to conform to the chemical element naming, even though unobtanium is a compound, not an element.)James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide, page 17 There matters stood until the first unmanned exploration vehicle reached Alpha Centauri System and discovered deposits of a room temperature superconducting substance on an Earth-like moon named Pandora - unobtanium had been obtained at last. Trivia *A similar material or compound appeared in the Terminator franchise, also by James Cameron. Simply referenced as the "room-temperature superconductor." It caused a nuclear holocaust after it was used to create the first sentient computer, Skynet. *The name "unobtanium" is an old engineering joke, and can be applied to any rare or hard to find material that is "unobtainable."See Wikipedia's article for more information. *The name "unobtanium" also can refer to the properties needed from a material that does not yet exist for an engineering solution, eg "we need something that will withstand 450 degrees C" "You need some unobtanium" such as during the design of the SR-71 Blackbird, the term "unobtanium" was used to describe the materials properties needed to withstand the aerodynamic heating the aircraft would be subjected to, even though materials where known about that would be suitable, such as Titanium. *This joke became a trope in science fiction: any material that is extremely useful (often crucial for all fictional technology), hard to find and is thus practically unobtainable is collectively described as unobtanium. *The mineral shown as "unobtanium" in reality is called galena, and is the chief ore of the actual element lead. It is a very dense rock made of lead sulfide.See Wikipedia's article for more information. * In the Activist Survival Guide, unobtanium is listed incorrectly as element 120 in an image spread, even though it was stated that unobtanium is a compound, not a element, just two pages prior. James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide page 19 References de:Unobtanium fr:Unobtainium nl:Unobtanium pl:Unobtanium es:Inobtanio Category:Avatar Category:RDA Category:Avatar: The Game